Aussiehalley - Halley Down Under

Word of the day: aardappel

So for dinner tonight, I stopped at a vegetarian fast food place. How awesome is that? That not only are there are ton of vegetarian places, but that there is a vegetarian fast food place? I love Melbourne. (Actually, it was in Fitzroy, but whatever.) It's called Pronto Bronto's. I'm not sure if it's a Flintstones reference (bronto burgers), but either way, it was good.

They had a menu of different burgers (veggie patty, tofu patty, soy, tempeh, fake burger flavor) with all kinds of acoutrements. They have veggie and vegan pretty desserts. They have random fast food-ish items. Best of all, they have fried potato products. Now, I love potatoes in many forms. ~Adoro la papa. Amo la patata. Ik houd van de aardappel*.~ I enjoy a potato baked, tater-tot'ed, au'gratined, as steak fries, as straw fries, latked, hash browned, pancaked --- starchy heaven.

The problem is, though, in most restaurants and fish'n'chip shops, the oil the potato product is deep-fried in is the same vat of oil they deep all the meat and fish and animal-y things in. Ew. So if I choose volunary blindness and get them anyway, there is the familiar feeling in my stomach of greasy cow/pig/chicken/grouper carcass. But here, we know it's all veggie goodness in that vat of grease. Yay!

I got an avocado wrap.

The place had posters and flyers for plays and performance pieces going on at the Fringe Festival now. I got a postcard for national vegan day, or something to that effect. And the people sitting at the table had a nice spread of the community newspapers.

Actually, I was coming from a quickie show I had just gone to, down the street, for the festival. It was at a bar/lounge called Kent St, with the requisite funky paint colors, and art on the walls, and used couches, and people dressed like they just roll out of bed with cool hair but really spent ages crafting "the look." But there were also some encouraging scuzzy folk up at the bar. A comfortable mix.

The show was upstairs, made to look like a small studio apartment. It was called, [Insert Name Here], the ticket was a tea bag, and we all drank tea together (an interesting mix with the vodka tonic from the bar I got waiting to go up). I received some mail there^. Yep, a Post woman gave out a few letters, because when you move, sometimes your mail finds you, right? They got my details from the booking info... but still, I was a little sketched out to see my Chicago address handed to me on an envelop. By a stranger. Upstairs. On the third floor. Of a random bar halfway down Smith St in Fitzroy Victoria Australia.

***

*Of course 'aard-appel' is the Dutch word for potato... ahhh, those Dutch...
^No, not real mail. A letter from the show, but with my details on the front of the envelop. There was a whole other part to the show, with the main character, but it also dealt with senses of home, and what finds us where, and how we create that kind of space, what we bring with us, etc. And it was nice and quick.

Don't you love a post with footnotes?

posted by Halley @ 10:21 AM